This vote-denying policy — backed by Scott and Attorney General Pam Bondi and with a waiting period that often lasts a decade — is a throwback to the 1800s when white politicians were worried the state would become too "niggerized" if freed black slaves had equal rights, as cited by the Brennan Center for Justice.

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And it has been long decried by civil-rights advocates and Democrats, with conservatives — including columnist George Will and former Senate President Don Gaetz — now also calling the policy flawed and unfair.

It's also, as it turns out, unconstitutional.

So said a federal judge in a scathing ruling a few weeks ago that called the state's vote-denying "scheme" arbitrary, political and "nonsensical."

"Florida strips the right to vote from every man and woman who commits a felony," ruled Judge Mark Walker. "To vote again, disenfranchised citizens must kowtow before a panel of high-level government officials …. No standards guide the panel … The question now is whether such a system passes constitutional muster. It does not."

He was quite clear. And before anyone starts crying "judicial activism" — a popular argument for whiners when a verdict doesn't go their way — know that Judge Walker earned bipartisan support and has sided with Scott in the past. The judge was put on the federal bench with a 96-0 vote in the U.S. Senate. And he once sided with Scott's education department in ruling against the state's teacher's union in a battle over teacher pay.

Still, despite widespread criticism and Walker's ruling, Scott and Bondi are fighting to keep their extremist policy in place.

These two rarely miss an opportunity to make the wrong decision on civil rights.

Whether it is gay marriage or voting rights, they routinely treat the U.S. Constitution like toilet paper — and use your tax dollars to fight their legal battles.

Equally galling, though, may be their alleged reason for doing so — that they claim they are standing with victims.

And Scott sure didn't stand with victims when the company he was running committed one of the biggest thefts of tax dollars in American history, according to federal investigators who netted a $1.7 billion Medicare-fraud settlement with Columbia/HCA.

The victims there were American taxpayers. And Scott didn't stand with them. After the investigation began, he resigned with a $300 million parachute.

So spare us the indignation about fighting for victims.

Keep in mind, Florida's anti-voting law is so broad, it can mean a lifetime ban for people who once got into a bar fight or possessed a single pot plant. I followed the journey of an Air Force veteran who lost his right to vote for more than three decades, stemming back to charges associated with $162 worth of bum checks he wrote in 1982.

The current policy isn't about justice. It's about politics and pandering.

Florida voters will get a chance to fix all this with a constitutional amendment this fall that would automatically restore civil rights to those who serve all their sentences, including probation and paying restitution, except for those convicted of sex crimes or murder.

Scott and Bondi should do as the judge ordered and start fixing the system themselves. But the odds are long as they continue to be on the wrong side of history, equal justice and the U.S. Constitution.